The Rise of the Beast Kings
by Hitomi Zotz
Summary: Sequel to Curse of the Gods. Daniels left Egypt a broken man, surviving a curse thanks to the sacrifice of Jess. Jess and Henderson are alive again but no one knows how and they're not quite right. Henderson doesn't think they returned alone and something is pulling them back to Egypt. Helped by O'Connell, Evie and Jonathan once more, the group returns to Egypt to end another curse
1. Prologue- King Jackal

_Before there were pharaohs in Egypt there were kings, ruling and quarrelling over the north and south. The Scorpion King paved the way for unity leading to the first Pharaoh Narmer. Before the Scorpion King the beast kings ruled the land- Crocodile, Bull and Elephant._

 _In a primordial age as civilisation only just began forming the gods still walked the lands. It was a dark time when beings neither man nor animal held the power, jealously hording it for themselves as they spilt blood to keep it._

3300 BC- A period known as Naqada III or Dynasty 0

In Upper Egypt the Hedjet, the white crown, belonged to beast kings. First to claim it in his bloody hands was King Jackal, also known as Anapanebtadjeser, Anapa- Lord of the Sacred Land. When the Hedjet slipped onto King Jackal's bronzed brow the sands in his kingdom turned to black and his land became known as Amenti. His reign lasted only until the arrival of a mysterious stranger with flaming hair who called himself Setekh.

Setekh brought strife and disease to the land, where he walked flies and scarabs followed, the water he drank turned to blood and the crops he touched turned to ash. A battle was fought for six months until King Jackal appeared to be the victor and Setekh was presumably banished. It was not so however for the beast kings were but men wearing masks and Setekh now donned the black jackal mask taking disguise as King Jackal. This new reign became one of tyranny as the new King Jackal demanded a temple built in his honour and made slaves of his people. When others came to rob him of his crown he kept it by raising an army of the dead to fight for him. Rumours spread across the land of his ever rising temple and how it contained unusual riches, and a passageway to the underworld and the gods themselves within.

All uprisings failed and even the sun hid in fear plunging the land into darkness. As the sands turned red with blood and the population dwindled the beast lords finally tired of this tyrant and united forces. Lords who would become known as Crocodile, Bull, Elephant, and Scorpion joined forces against King Jackal bringing floods, stampedes and poison against his forces. Eventually, after years of war and death, the beast lords found victory and Elephant took the white crown as King Jackal was banished from the land and history. His mysterious temple was sealed up and the secrets of the dead with it.

The reign of the beast kings began anew and both King Jackals were stricken from history and the temple of Amenti was lost to the sands of time. King Elephant began his reign in the domain of Qustul and the cursed city of Amenti was forgotten too and no one even asked the fate of the jackal king, little realising that two had vanished to history along with the mysterious jackal mask and the powers to raise the dead.

Pharaohs came and went and any that attempted to find evidence of the beast kings in the hopes of gaining their godly powers suffered an ill fate- Hotepsekhemwy saw an earthquake kill many under his reign, Teti, Amenemhat I, and Ramses III were all assassinated, Akhenaten was thought mad and reviled in life and death for turning from the gods, Tutankhamun died young, Necho I died in battle, and Apries fled from battle and Egypt.

Egypt, once divided and then united, fell to the Persians, the Macedonians, and the Romans, exchanging hands from country to country as rulers foreign and native took and lost the coveted throne. All the power of the gods became lost to history and the beast kings faded to obscurity.

The mysterious power over death that King Jackal had however was not quite forgotten.

* * *

 _So better or worse I've started a sequel to Curse of the Gods. I had it mind before I finished Curse of the Gods and they I couldn't forget about it. As some of you I changed the ending of CotG but I still couldn't forget the idea of a sequel. I know it undoes the gravity of Jess and Henderson's sacrifices in a way but I'm hoping I can make it work. Obviously all reviews are appreciated and welcome :-) Equally if you don't like it that's okay, don't read it, it's just for fun :-)_

 _Also, there is no King Jackal, at least to my knowledge but there is scant evidence of King Crocodile, Bull and Elephant, and a bit more for two King Scorpions. This fic is set between The Mummy and The Mummy Returns._


	2. Chapter 1- Life on the Ranch

It was cold and dark, she could barely see two inches in front of her and yet she was unafraid. The water that caressed her legs and filled her lap chilled her to the bone but she had no urge to pull herself from it, finding it soothing. She pulled her knees close, shut her eyes and let out a deep breath. She imagined herself absent from her body, a spirit floating at the edge of the abyss, just drifting in the primordial, obsidian waters that had first given birth to existence.

A loud splashing noise ruined her moment of peace and snapped her back to the reality of icy dampness and darkness. "Jesus Christ! What the hell are you doing now?"

Jess Thornwood flinched at the candlelight that smudged her pale cheeks pulling her back from the peaceful shade. How odd it was that people feared the dark for its shadows when it was the light that brought the shadows into existence.

David Daniels looked down at the young woman aghast waiting for an explanation he knew wouldn't come. He let out another curse before turning back to the shore where he abandoned the lantern to burn out on the damp silt. He cursed again as he waded back through the cool shallows of the lake to the young woman. His tough, brown, leather boots were no match for the water and his frown deepened as the water washed into them as it just surpassed them. "Why are you in the lake?" he demanded with a look of frustration that created fresh wrinkles in his brow.

Jess said nothing; she just hugged her knees closer and stared out at the smooth, inky black surface before them. With no moon in the sky and no breeze the lake looked like a tear in existence itself- a neat, glassy black hole ready to swallow people into another realm, the realm of the dead. She was grey in the darkness and her hair was dark with the water, the droplets running down her back betraying how she had evidently submerged herself in it at some point.

Daniels, knowing he could well be here until sunrise before he got an answer, knelt down and picked the woman up roughly, raising her sideways in both his muscular arms with little grace and several swears. He turned back to the shore and trudged up from the water and through the muck. He sighed as he realised he would have to make the journey in almost complete darkness as he couldn't carry the lantern as well. He abandoned the lantern where it lay and moved as briskly as he could with the extra weight, relying on memory to guide him back to home. The air was heavy tonight with the odour of firewheel, evening primrose, and blackfoot daisy, some of the native flowers of the land, Daniels barely noticed them but tonight he found his nose wrinkling every couple of paces as he was almost overwhelmed with their perfumes. Daniels didn't know one from the other save for the evening primrose, a small, pink flower with a bright, yellow centre that bloomed at dusk and withered in the day. The Texan had only become acquainted with the properties of that flower thanks to Jess showing a morbid obsession with it. Just a week ago she had filled the house with the flowers and Daniels had almost lost his temper with her as he had demanded their removal.

It took a good twenty minutes and involved colliding with rocks and stumbling over brambles and tree roots before the Texan made it to his modest two storey house. It sat still and quiet in the night, just one light flickering out of the lower front windows. The ranch beside it offered the low call of cattle half in slumber and the stalls only a few feet away showed little sign of activity save for some snorts and brief whinnying. The ever growing Daniels' property was at peace save for the man who owned it and the odd company he carried awkwardly up the wooden steps to the porch.

Daniels frowned again as he glanced at the porch- it was only a couple of months old, replacing one over thirty years old that had rotted and chipped beyond repair. It had been necessary but he still felt nostalgic for the old porch, the one with the wooden swing his father had made for him that his mother had often sat upon, sewing and humming calmly on long summer evenings. A porch he had sat many a carved pumpkin upon in fall with a post by the door he had been measured against as he had grown and grown, sulking when he had finally stopped and both his male cousins had surpassed him.

At the sound of Daniels' boots hitting off the steps the main door was opened slowly and the tentative, freckled face of his maid Becky Anderson peered out. Seeing Daniels, she pulled the door fully open and stepped back hastily so he could enter with his silent companion. Becky eyed Jess with unease for a few seconds before she finally noticed that both Jess and Daniels were soaking wet.

"Oh dear! Do you need a towel sir?" the maid exclaimed as she looked up at Daniels in alarm.

Daniels bristled slightly at the 'sir' before reminding himself that this maid had only been around for a handful of weeks. He couldn't even remember her name thinking it was Rachel before swiftly recalling that Rachel was her recent predecessor. He frowned at the thought of the pretty redhead who had departed in the dead of the night, pale faced and babbling about Jess being 'possessed' and insisting that she wouldn't spend another minute on the ranch even if it meant walking to the town in darkness. Daniels had been ready to let her, shouting several profanities at her whilst he had fumbled to cease the blood gushing out of Jess' nose as she had sat howling in a corner like the world was ending but then a stable hand had come at the noise and offered to take Becky on horseback to the town.

"Get Jess a change of clothes and a blanket while I get the fire going," he grumbled before turning to the right and heading into the living room. He sat Jess down unceremoniously on a brown bearskin rug, his frown deepening when she didn't so much as twitch.

It took Daniels ten minutes to get the fire started, luckily there were already logs in it and it was a simple matter of lighting and stoking it before he had a satisfactory cluster of amber flames. He abandoned the poker to the black mantelpiece, kicked off his damp boots and then tugged off his soggy, grey socks before his stony, indigo stare fell on Jess.

She was almost twenty-seven, an odd, young woman who was too thin in the face, wan when she had once been swarthy, the sun freckles on her cheeks more prominent now that her skin had taken on an unpleasant sallow tone. Her feral, golden-brown eyes finally met his stare and lost their blankness. "David?"

He nodded tiredly in a vague response to her.

She opened her mouth to form another question but was interrupted by the intrusion of Becky. The maid entered with a nervous step, pausing a good three feet from Jess as she held out the bundle of clothes and blankets in her arms with a desperate look to Daniels.

The Texan sighed, too tired to berate the woman for her fears and knowing it was unfair anyway. Since Jess had appeared at his estate he had lost three maids, two stable hands, a cook, and a ranch hand. "Just set 'em over there," he muttered as he nodded at the two seater with another frown.

Becky hastened to the wooden chair at the back wall, depositing her bundle on its couches before hastening from the room.

Jess glanced down at her damp, bedraggled form curiously as Daniels stood and walked towards the door. He shut the door firmly before lifting the bundle from the couch and carrying it back to Jess. He kneeled down before her and sat the bundle down in front of her. "You need to get out of those clothes," he advised.

"Was it the lake?" she queried quietly.

Daniels nodded. "Yep, who did you see this time?"

"Anubis," she confessed darkly, "beckoning me with one hand, he had a gold ankh in the other and he kept waving it at something." She shook her head with a weary expression. "I don't know anymore, it's always nightmares about Egypt, I feel like something must be out there calling to me."

"Trying to trick you probably," Daniels muttered with a look of disapproval. He stood up again and turned away from her. "Get changed now before you catch a cold," he mumbled with a bowed head.

Jess obeyed hastily, swapping her soaked trousers and top for the soft, powder blue nightdress procured for her. She ignored the heavy, wool gown to go with it, standing with little modesty in the figure hugging nightwear.

The Texan flinched slightly when he felt a hand upon his right shoulder, pulling very lightly at him compelling him to turn. He turned as expected and for a moment was still. The blue suited Jess, it went well with her golden hair and even seemed to warm her pale complexion. He thought even with her aura of unsettlement she still looked attractive, spying a glimmer of the wild girl he had met in Egypt as he glanced at her still damp, unbound locks and the way she stood barefoot and without much reserve in her attire.

She slipped her hands between his arms and sides, wrapping her arms about his broad torso as she leaned into it, placing the right side of her head against his chest. Daniels remained stoic as he stared down at her, uncertain what to do about this sudden show of affection. His feelings for her had been muddled in Egypt and she had died too soon for him to really figure them out and now... Well now he was too busy trying to understand how the hell she was alive again to think about his feelings for her, and not just her either, Jess had not come from the afterlife alone.

"Can you stay with me a while?" she queried softly.

"Of course," he answered calmly. He embraced her loosely with his right arm but could not decide if it felt right or wrong to him to treat her in an intimate fashion.

After a couple of minutes Jess finally released the Texan. Daniels shrugged off his damp, brown duster abandoning it to an armchair before he crossed to the decanter of whiskey resting on a table against the wall. He took out the crystal stopper and poured himself a glass before glancing over at Jess. The young woman shook her head before settling herself on the bearskin again.

Daniels gulped down the glass quickly, too used to the burn now to even flinch at it. He poured another glass for himself before sitting down cross legged beside Jess and before the fire. It didn't take long for Jess to rest her head in his lap and he welcomed it, stroking at her hair lightly with one hand whilst cradling his whiskey in the other as he kept his stare on the fire.

Daniels' bloodshot eyes opened sharply at the sharp breathing beside him before a scream of horror banished the remaining fatigue from him. He sat up quickly and looked down at the woman he had been lying beside. She was kicking out frantically with both feet, sweat shone on her skin and both hands were grasping at her throat.

"I can't breathe! I can't breathe! God no!" She screamed again.

Daniels reached out a hand to her and shook her shoulder, at first gentle, his grasp became tighter when she failed to respond and he shook her harder. "Jess wake up!"

Her eyes opened, wide with terror as the screams turned into choking sounds. Her hands dropped from her throat and she extended both her arms out in front of her and looked at them in confusion.

Daniels knew exactly what she was reliving; he had been through this with her a couple of times now, worse he had been there when the incident had actually occurred. Jess was reliving her own death at the hands of a resurrected mummy who had been seeking the life force of those who had robbed from its tomb. Daniels had been one of those thieves; in fact the mummy had cornered him when Jess had suddenly called its attention to herself, dying in place of Daniels.

Daniels embraced the quivering woman close against him in an effort to calm her. "It's alright Jess," he murmured, "it was just a nightmare." For him it was just going through the motions- she screamed, he woke her, she babbled about her death and he, driven as much by guilt as by sympathy, attempted to console her, lamely dismissing the horrific memory as a simple nightmare.

"No, no I died, oh God..." Her words became incoherent as her pupils dilated. Her voice gave way to a horrid combination of whimpers, sobs and wails of horror and pain.

"Take it easy now jackal," Daniels compelled her, a hint of begging slipping into his voice as she struggled against his embrace. He rubbed her back with one hand as his other moved up to weave through her tangle of hair. It was all just part of the ritual; sometimes he didn't even think about what he was doing, it was all just a habit he had forced himself to get used to. It was difficult showing her affection, even if it was in comfort, Daniels had never been one to console people and when he held Jess it just created a conflict of emotions inside him. "I promise it's alright now, we're in Texas not Egypt, ain't no mummy gonna hurt you out here."

"It hurts so much," she choked out, "everything just got torn away." Her breathing was becoming erratic now and Daniels could feel her pulse racing as two of his fingers pressed against it on her neck. It was so odd feeling a pulse there, it wasn't right and the Texan couldn't fathom it but he went along with it because a pulse meant Jess was living. If she was living maybe he could stop hating himself for her death.

"I know but you got it back," Daniels answered, his voice tight as he struggled to keep calm. Her words made him uneasy bringing back many unpleasant memories and a hundred unanswered questions. Daniels had never been able to shake Jess' horrific death from his mind, no more than he could forget his best friends Henderson's and Burns' deaths either by the same mummy. All of them had died slowly and painfully as the mummy had drained them of their life force, consuming it to restore itself to its former human state. Despite the gold he had gained from the ill-gotten venture in Egypt and the whores and drink he had consumed after, David Daniels had never been able to rid himself of those nightmarish memories or the endless guilt that came with them.

The Texan knew he should have been relieved when the mummy's curse, or at least part of it, had seemed to undo itself. He had discovered this when word had reached him almost two years after the doomed adventure of two familiar forms that had showed up in Cairo without explanation. As confused and naked as two newborn babes, they had waited under guard in the fort that had failed to offer one of them sanctuary before, waiting without knowing what they waited for. Daniels had deliberated about going back to that hellhole city, convinced it was lies or a trick anyway, how had they even managed to get word to him? Curiosity and that ever present guilt had persuaded him to abandon safety and sanity and go on a long and lonely journey back to the dusty shores of Egypt seeking truth and closure this time instead of fame and fortune.

"I don't know how, I don't know how," Jess whimpered against him, almost hysterically as she continued to shake as tears stained her cheeks.

"No, me either," Daniels grumbled, "but it happened and I'm grateful it did," he added. He glanced about the room, the fire had gone out and it was unpleasantly dark and cold now. "It's early yet, let's get you into a proper bed and you'll sleep better."

He stood up, tugging the trembling woman up with him before pulling her to the living room door. She moved though she was stiff and awkward as she did. "David where are we?" she croaked, her voice quiet and taut with puzzlement.

Daniels glanced back at her with worry as he tugged the door open. "My house jackal, in the living room but we're going upstairs."

"We were in Egypt," she mumbled as her eyes seemed to glaze over slightly. "We met in Egypt."

"We did."

"I've never been to America; I told you that, I wanted to see the Wild West."

"You did and now you're here Jess."

"No, no this is part of it, drifting through the lives that could have been," she protested, her voice raising a notch as she suddenly became resistant in his grasp. "It all fades away though and then there's just the nothing."

Daniels frowned, the woman was getting worse in his care and he did not know what to do about it anymore. How exactly was someone meant to deal with a person resurrected from the dead? It wasn't as if he could fault her either, he couldn't even imagine how traumatic it must be to not only remember one's own death but to have to accept that you had died but were now living again against all the laws of nature.

"Jackal this isn't a dream or vision or anything like that, this is real," he attempted to reassure her.

"No," she shook her head, "no this is what I wanted, what I thought would happen at the end but then I died, I died! I died! I died!"

He pulled her against him once more if only to hush her before she frightened the sleeping servants yet again. "Yes jackal you died, in Egypt, because of a curse," he said bluntly, "but then you came back, you and Henderson. I have no idea how or why but you did, you are alive as sure as I am, you shouldn't be but you are. I don't know what kind of afterlife you were in but you are definitely out of it now, I swear."

She turned a frightened stare up to him but he saw a spark of hope in her amber-brown eyes at last prompting a small, faint smile from him. "Why did you bring me here?" she queried quietly.

"You wanted to see here and you deserved to," he answered truthfully.

"Why here though, why your house?"

"Damn Jess, where else would I have you?" He leaned down and gave her a chaste kiss, as much to reassure her as himself. Her lips were damp and warm, perhaps a little too warm. "Let's go upstairs now," he said quietly.

She let him lead her up the stairs and to her chambers without complaint. Jess couldn't know it but these chambers had once been Bethany's for when she stayed too late to travel home safely. Daniels loathed dwelling in the room and even now he was reluctant to go into it.

When they reached the room they sat on the edge of the bed together and exchanged a look. Daniels offered Jess another half smile as he tried to hide his discomfort before pushing some of her frizzy, golden-brown hair out of her face. Jess in turn reached up to his ebony hair, one finger reaching out to brush lightly against a silver strand. Egypt had seen Daniels aged noticeably; he had come home from the desert country with fresh wrinkles at his brow, permanently bloodshot eyes and new grey hairs. She moved into him, curling up against him sideways and he once more held her close with one arm whilst moving his free hand up and down her back.

"There now jackal, I know it's a memory but it's a nightmare too and you've gotta let it go, we've both gotta let it go," he murmured. He thought of embracing Bethany on these sheets and how she had pushed him back mockingly, protesting that they were yet unwed and he should act like it. It felt so wrong holding another woman here but sanctuary was the least he owed Jess and as for everything else, well he couldn't help that, there was definitely some spark between him and Jess, even now.

"I see Mr. Burns' eyes," she choked out, "only they are so full of hate, like my father's went. It wasn't them but God it seemed like it was."

Daniels sighed, that was a memory he could relate to. The mummy had taken his friend's tongue and eyes before eventually killing him and each time they had encountered the mummy he had looked at them with Burns' eyes. He tugged off his fedora, slipped it onto Jess' head and tugged the brim down over her eyes. "There, now you can't see anything," he said softly.

Jess pressed her head closer against him. "You did this before," she murmured quietly, "in Egypt, at the campfire."

"Yeah, you had a thing for my hat in Egypt," he teased, "remember that too?"

She elbowed him lightly causing him to give a small grunt. "I remember you kept losing it," she countered, "usually in bets."

"O'Connell cheated," Daniels grumbled.

Jess gave a small smile at this. "They left Egypt too, didn't they?"

Daniels nodded reassuringly. "Yeah, off to merry old England."

"Good, I hope they're happy there," Jess said sincerely.

"With all the treasure they took with them I'd say they are better than happy," Daniels retorted dryly. "Now, you need to get some sleep missy, proper sleep." He pulled away from her and stood up from the bed. "I'll be in my room."

Jess nodded up at him as she manoeuvred herself into the bed beneath the soft, cotton blanket. "It's hard getting used to this," she murmured as she leaned back against the two duck feathered pillows.

"It certainly is," Daniels answered wearily before he trekked out of the room, leaving the door partially ajar behind him. If Jess was going to be having anymore nightmares or bouts of sleep walking he wanted a chance to hear her. When he reached his own room he left his door ajar too before climbing into the bed with a tired grunt.

* * *

Outside the morning sky was a milky blue promising a day of sun, and there was a faint breeze in the air keeping the temperature at a manageable level and slowly carrying the odours of the ranch through the open kitchen window. It was busy as ranch hands, stable boys, and maids hastened to attend to the animals on the property.

The master of the property was inside at the sturdy pine table in the kitchen, smoking heavily as the cook and maid bustled about him and his laidback guest, putting out a breakfast he wasn't even sure he wanted. The guest, one Henry Henderson, was slouched in his seat, hands resting together in his lap, and his feet slightly crossed over one another. He looked every inch the cowboy, more so than ranch owner David Daniels could ever hope to, with spurs at the heels of his tan brown boots, duster covers over his trouser legs, and the cliché but so well suited cowboy hat upon his dirty fair locks, tilted back so his swarthy, handsome face was exposed.

Henderson's jewel like eyes were fixed upon Daniels, alert and serious. Daniels was unnerved by the stare though he tried his best to conceal this. With Jess Daniels expected the almost feral stare, she had had that even in life but with Henderson it was strange to see the dangerous and wild sparkle that occasionally crept into his eyes, especially since he had always been such an easygoing man. It wasn't that the blond was less easygoing now, by all means he still had his charm and his humour as far as Daniels knew but there was something else to him now, a shadow that sometimes seeped into his bright persona and turned it hostile.

"I can't believe you're still in this place," Henderson murmured, "all that gold and you keep your ghosts. Come on Daniels, isn't this just a graveyard for your memories now?"

Daniels frowned across at his friend, unimpressed with his analogy. "You've said that before," he muttered.

"I know but you've got Miss Jess now David, why won't you start again? Does she even know Bethany lived here?"

Daniels' frown deepened and he took a deep draw from his cigarette as he contemplated his answer. "Lived Henderson, past tense, and it's hardly relevant. This was my father's ranch; you know that, it's a family place."

Henderson shook his head even as he offered his friend an empty smile. "Daniels, Jess and I are caught up in death it's no good if you are too. I mean are you really moving on here or trying to move back? Is Miss Jess going to come down here in trousers or a dress?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Daniels asked sullenly as he flicked ash into a copper ashtray.

"Bethany wore dresses," Henderson mused, "Jess wouldn't be the type."

"In Egypt," Daniels argued as he waved off the coffee pot a dark haired maid offered to him. "Jess wasn't the type in Egypt because a dress was hardly practically for tomb raiding," he scoffed, "as Miss Carnahan frequently demonstrated but this is Texas Henderson, she can wear a dress here, you don't gotta read into it."

"Don't I?" Henderson retorted mockingly as he nodded to the maid and held his half-drained cup up to her. Once she had poured it he blew on it just once before taking a deep gulp.

"You used to take sugar with that," Daniels muttered as he finally stubbed out his cigarette.

Henderson shrugged. "Don't care much about it now, can't taste it anymore."

The maid, Elsa, gave the blonde an odd look before she scurried over to the cook and exchanged a glance of unease with her. They were becoming used to Henry Henderson now though his visits were irregular and mostly unannounced. Sometimes he called for a few minutes on his way to town, sometimes he lingered for hours and a few rare times he had stayed for as long as a couple of days. Though he spent much of his time drinking and smoking with Daniels it was obvious his visits were as much based around Jess as they were around Daniels.

Whilst the staff liked to see Henderson with their employer as he seemed to pull Daniels out of his darker moods and even made him smile on occasion, they didn't like him with Jess, he made her oddities seem all the worse and equally she brought out a strangeness in him. All the staff on the ranch knew there was something wrong with Jess and now they were starting to suspect Henderson had the same wrongness in him but what they weren't sure of was if Jess was the catalyst or if it was something they both simply shared.

"Right," Daniels muttered dismissively. He paused to glance up past Henderson at the figure that had appeared in the doorway.

Henderson turned to follow his friend's gaze and gave the arrival a warm smile. "Morning Miss Jess," he greeted jovially. "You're looking lovely."

Daniels withheld a grimace at Henderson's words; sincere as they might be Daniels knew there was an implication in them too. Jess was wearing a white, cotton shirt and a black, linen pinafore with black, tasselled boots. It wasn't quite a dress but it wasn't something Jess would have ever found herself wearing in Egypt either. 'It's hardly something Bethany would've worn either,' Daniels thought to himself moodily.

Jess blinked at Henderson curiously before she gave him a faint smile. "Morning Henry," she retorted calmly. She stepped into the kitchen, taking a seat at the table on the left near Daniels.

Elsa hastened to the young woman, trying to subdue her unease. "Eggs?" she quipped calmly as she held the pan of fried eggs above the plate before Jess.

Jess glanced up at the maid and nodded.

Daniels, feeling that they needed to talk frankly with one another, waved away the maid and cook once Elsa had served Jess some toast and orange juice. Jess despised the coffee and Daniels grumbled that finding her proper English tea in Texas was an impossible task, so she made do with what alternatives could be procured.

Once the workers were gone Jess was quick to look over to Henderson and quip, "did you have a dream last night?"

"I'm sure I had several," Henderson muttered, "but I suppose you mean one about Egypt."

Jess nodded. "I saw Anubis," she confessed, "beckoning me to something, I'm afraid it was back to that place." She swallowed hard and murmured, "we never completed the gates."

"We didn't have to," Henderson retorted with a look of unease. "I didn't see anything like that; I just saw the black desert."

"Black desert?" Daniels repeated with a puzzled look.

Henderson glanced across the table at him and nodded. "I don't know if it's in the land of the living or the dead but I see it, I think we were even there, Jess and I."

"So it's a memory or a nightmare," Daniels dismissed.

"It's more than that," Jess protested with a shake of her head, "it keeps happening and I don't think it's going to stop until..."

"Until what?" Henderson asked hoarsely with an angry scowl.

"I ended up in the lake last night," Jess informed him softly as she placed down her cutlery and abandoned her half-eaten breakfast. "It was like the primordial waters, a nothingness at the beginning of time, I wanted to drown in it."

"Shit Jess don't say that," Daniels protested as concern flashed in his indigo gaze.

"One foot in the land of the living and one in the land of the dead," Henderson grumbled. "We didn't come back right, did we?"

"I don't...I don't know," Jess replied quietly as she bowed her head.

"I keep wondering about it too," Henderson admitted as he tugged off his hat and ran his hand through his unruly hair. "I don't feel quite complete, I drink and I smoke and I eat but everything seems faded, there's not the same pleasure in any of it that there was. And every night there's always a flicker of Egypt or it's a full blown nightmare, but...it ain't always a memory, sometimes it's something new. Something in the black desert."


	3. Chapter 2- Curse of the Dead

Amarillo was in a boom, the discovery of gas and oil was still recent and only this year the government had bought the Cliffside Gas Field, now a different kind of business would be bringing money and work to the city. David Daniels had little interest in it, so long as the meat trade thrived so did he. The fact that he still had pockets of gold stowed away did little to ease his fears of a changing world, he knew from his experience in Egypt just how quick treasure could come and go and how hard a man had to fight to keep it. Before that ill-fated venture Henderson had tried to persuade him to join the other farmers and ranch hands in growing wheat as Amarillo became a wheat belt for Texas but Daniels had no interest in crops save those that fed his animals. Henderson had scorned him, reminding him bitterly that they had missed out on the black gold and he was best not missing out on this but the coin required to get and tend the fields was more than Daniels had been willing to risk at the time.

As they paced through the city Daniels looked about with a measure of disgust, Amarillo was all about the new not the old. There was still a lot of the Old West in the city's territories with ranches, saloons, brothels and outlaws aplenty in the heart of the city but there were a lot of oil rigs about the edges of the city too and within it construction sites, factories and smog. Daniels had read the flyers and newspaper articles suggesting the cowmen come into the city for business, and talking of Amarillo being the fastest growing city in the states as evidenced by the Amarillo Hotel needing to be expanded and he hated it. In Egypt Daniels had missed his home with his modern, civilised way of life but now he was starting to hate civilisation just a little although he supposed grimly that he sure as hell wouldn't trade it for the desert and its pyramids and tombs trapped in time.

The Texan glanced back at the woman nimbly in his shadow, staying close to his back as if he made her invisible. She had never been anywhere quite like this, naturally Daniels had resisted bringing her to the city as he had been more concerned with simply containing her and figuring her out. He had also been half afraid that if he brought her here she would either lose her mind or herself to it. With all Jess' talk of Egypt he had felt forced to make a choice and had determined that rather than going back to the nightmarish land and risking losing her all over again he would integrate her and show her that she could have a nice life here in the lone star state with him. The problem was Daniels wasn't too integrated himself anymore, Bethany and Burns had been the shining socialites. Bethany was the party lover and Burns was the city boy and between them they had persuaded Henderson and Daniels to participate in the city life now and again.

"Keep up," Daniels murmured.

Jess was wearing cream trousers and a linen shirt, clothes Daniels had procured from a farmhand though he had intended for their use to be temporary. She stood out like a sore thumb here and that was part of the reason why she was here, for clothes. He looked at her hopefully, willing her to spy something in a window and want it. It wouldn't do for him to choose after all, he had no idea what the woman would suit or want and he daren't suggest anything either, Henderson's jibes about her wearing dresses like Bethany were still ringing in his ears. Daniels knew Jess could never be a flapper girl nor did he wish her to be, he didn't like the thought of her in sequins, feather boas and pearls, it seemed cheap and he knew it would be ill-suited on her. He wanted her to be comfortable though and to realise she could dress as much for style now as for need. She wasn't tomb raiding anymore or living like a beggar, she had his coin at her disposal and he hoped that maybe if she opened herself up a bit more to just living life then it would get less difficult for her.

Jess' golden-brown eyes flickered up to him until a bark from across the road drew her attention elsewhere. Jess halted to look at the golden Labrador being walked by a young man with intrigue. "Anu," the word escaped her quietly but there was no missing the grief in it.

Daniels sighed as he followed her gaze and just caught the softly uttered name. He had known this issue had to come up eventfully. It was a topic he should have raised himself but a guilty conscience had kept him silent on the matter and foolishly hoping that the inevitable somehow wouldn't happen. Not wanting to deal with it in the middle of the street, the sable haired man took the young woman's left arm gently and guided her on.

"Anu," she repeated the name again with more conviction as she craned her head back to look at the dog wagging its tail and continuing on its way. "I had a dog," she murmured, "I had Anu."

Daniels did not reply, terrified of the obvious question that he knew was coming.

"Daniels, what happened to Anu?"

Daniels bristled slightly as Jess halted and he felt her pulling him back, back down the street, back the way they had come, back into the past. He glanced over his left shoulder at her with a calm stare. "Can we talk about it when we get home?" he queried. "It's better that we do," he added in a more serious tone.

Jess looked at Daniels in confusion before straining her neck once more to eye the Labrador, which had almost retreated from view. "I...he wasn't there..." she murmured. "I...did I leave him behind? I'm not sure."

"Jess," Daniels' voice took on a begging quality that was quite unlike him, "don't do this now. I promise we'll talk about it back home. Just, just look around the shops alright," he added gruffly, almost as a command.

Jess let him pull her on and her eyes even darted to the shop windows but the intent was not there. Daniels suffered it for twenty minutes more before accepting that Jess' mind was definitely elsewhere. He wondered darkly at where exactly the elsewhere might be, half in life and half in death, wasn't that how Henderson put it? Never really here or there. Daniels did not know what to make of that, it sounded unpleasant and it wasn't something he could understand. Truthfully he would rather forget it, all of it, and he wished Henderson and Jess could too but he knew that was asking too much.

Jess paused to stare at a shop window intently. The mannequin in it was wearing a cream, silk blouse with gold buttons and a high collar, matched with a skirt of blue. "Bethany's death robes," she remarked grimly.

Daniels tensed at the words and followed the woman's stare. For a moment he was lost for words as his face whitened and his hands clenched tightly. It was only when Jess winced at his tight grip that he came out of his brief trance. Bethany had been wearing a similar outfit to the one in the window when Daniels had found her- soiled, bloodied, raped and beyond saving. "Jesus why did you have to say that?" he grumbled before he pulled Jess on.

"I don't know," Jess retorted softly with a look of confusion. "I'm sorry," she added sincerely.

Daniels just shook his head before he finally turned them in the direction of the cabs. He paused again when he spied a cafe with a modest gathering in it, some outside enjoying the afternoon sun. It was a mundane activity drinking coffee and a terrible way to waste time and not something Daniels had often found himself indulging in but people did seem to enjoy it as a past time and Jess loved her cups of tea as much as any Brit. Alright so the cafe more than likely didn't have tea but it would have plenty of other beverages and God wouldn't it be normal and didn't he need that with Jess right now?

The Texan didn't bother asking the woman if she wanted to go, instead he just pulled her on determined to force some normality on her. He sought out a free table against the back wall, showing an obvious discomfort as several women eyed his dusty boots and fedora with distain. Opting not to show etiquette simply out of spite to the looks Daniels made a point of keeping his hat on. They were greeted by a bright eyed waitress with a short dark bob and thin frame who Daniels was willing to wager partied in flapper girl style at night. Though Jess' request for hot tea drew another look of oddity given the warm weather it was readily granted along with a pot of black coffee for Daniels, a pot of sugar and a small, silver jug of milk.

Jess looked down at her cup thoughtfully as she stirred the silver teaspoon through it slowly. "It turned to blood," she murmured softly. "All the water." She dropped the spoon with a loud splash and looked up to Daniels in horror.

Suddenly Jess couldn't see Daniels anymore or the tea house, instead she found herself staring with wide eyes at the inner sanctum of a place ancient, forgotten and as terrifying as it was mysterious. It was a rotting temple of golden bricks and sand stained tiles with engravings upon the walls faded to age. There was a figure in the centre of it all, a stoic being seated on a throne of silver and bones, clawed hands clutching at the arms, head bowed and hidden beneath a black jackal mask.

Jess swallowed hard. "Pharaoh's heart is unyielding," she murmured softly before she shook her head and clutched at it with both hands. "No, the king's heart is unyielding, kings before pharaohs, gods before kings. Blood will be everywhere in Egypt." She let out a gasp as she saw streaks of red begin to run down the golden walls. "The black sands in the west, they sleep there but they are not dead." She stood up and looked about her with a shudder as she found her shoes scraping across black grains of sand.

Jess smelt the stale breath before she felt its coolness upon her face. She turned her head up cautiously and a bloodcurdling scream escaped her as she found herself face to face with the very being that had sucked the life out of her. The mummy of Imhotep, shamed priest of Seti I, looked at her with a leering, rotted teeth smile and the teal eyes of a fallen friend, Bernard Burns.

"Jesus," Daniels cursed. He had been trying to calm Jess for the past couple of minutes but to no avail. Now that she was on her feet screaming at nothing he knew there was no hope of enjoying his coffee. He jumped to his own feet, threw down a couple of notes hastily and grabbed the woman with both hands before forcing her from the cafe. He ignored the half-stunned offer of help from the waitress as he all but shoved Jess through the door and back to the dusty, hot streets of the city.

"I wanted you to come," Jess whimpered as she shook her head, "those eyes, it's always the eyes. I wanted to help you; I didn't mean to send you away, into his path. I thought I was helping you."

"Jess what the hell are you babbling about now?" Daniels demanded wearily as he took her by one hand and pulled her in the direction of the cabs.

"Mr. Burns, he crossed first, it was violent, we all went violent." She paused as she felt a lump rise in her throat and doubled over suddenly without warning.

Daniels glanced back at her with worry and let out a curse as she started dry heaving until her barely drunk tea trickled down her chin in watery brown streaks like old bloodstains. When she stopped Daniels just shook his head wordlessly and pulled the woman on again. He got them a cab with ease and was relieved when Jess kept her ramblings to a hoarse murmur that he was almost able to drown out as he pressed her against his coal grey shirt.

The Texan looked upon his ranch with relief as the cab neared it and paid the driver hastily before he pulled Jess from the car and ushered her up to his porch. He didn't even know what to do with the woman or where to push her and only paused to think on it when they stumbled into the living room. He hastened to his whiskey, poured himself a generous glass and gulped it down hastily as Becky looked through the open doorway worriedly obviously feeling she should offer help and yet fearful to get within proximity of Jess.

Daniels sat down his empty glass and leaned back against the oak table, resting his arms back on it as he eyed Jess warily. "Dare I offer you a drink or are you just going to spit it up again?" he demanded bluntly.

Jess just looked about the living room like she had never seen it before and shook her head. "I want to go home," she choked out.

Daniels' cobalt eyes widened at the childlike fear in her voice. He pushed off the table and took a step towards her, reaching out to grip her right arm gently. "Hey, you are home," he said reassuringly. "Come on now jackal; talk me through it, what happened in the cafe?"

"I don't want to be with the dead," she whispered, "black sands; I keep seeing them, in the west, with the dead and the dormant."

Daniels drew her against him loosely, moving his hand up to grip her shoulder lightly. "I don't understand," he admitted, his frustration clear in his voice.

"I should be dead but I'm not but it's not proper, and I keep feeling like something in me is wrong. I keep seeing it too; it gets clearer and clearer, this land with black sands in Egypt. There's something or someone out there in it and it pulls me, and the land of the dead pulls me and I know I'm going to end up ripped apart if I don't do something about it," she retorted anxiously.

"Something like what?" Daniels queried wearily.

"Going there," she answered sombrely.

Daniels frowned as he gave her a serious stare. "Back to Egypt, back to that hell?" he demanded savagely.

"I don't know what else to do," she answered mournfully as she pulled back from his grip and wrapped her arms about her shoulders. "I didn't come back right, something feels off and it won't stop and it won't fade and I can't keep going like this."

Daniels sighed; he knew the truth of her words even if he wanted to deny it. "Let's at least discuss it with Henderson first," he murmured.

Jess nodded in agreement.

* * *

It was just after six in the evening when Henry Henderson finally reached the Daniels' ranch, responding to his friend's hastily sent messenger requesting his presence. He had been reluctant to come knowing what it had to be about. Jess' reality was plagued with hallucinations of lost temples and a vanquished mummy foe with whispers of a black desert. Henderson's problems whilst different were no less creative. He had visions of monsters and gods in the ancient desert land, in his sleep he treaded on sands made crimson with blood and black with the moonless night. All of them had one thing in common- Anubis. Sometimes it was a glimpse of the god himself, other times a warrior wearing his face, or a mask sitting forgotten in an eroding temple. Sometimes he saw imagery that hinted at Set the chaos god and it made him wonder if Set's curse had been reactivated by Jess' return to the land of the living.

The blonde dismounted from his chestnut stallion and handed the reins over to the stable boy who has hastened to him. He tilted his tan hat slightly and gazed up at the ranch house curiously. The lights were on downstairs in the front room and he wondered if Daniels was getting drunk again in a bid to drown out Jess' abnormalities. Henderson's blue eyes shifted up to the windows above and he paled slightly. No lights on but there was a figure- a pallid, empty eyed woman with one ghostly hand pressed up against the pane. He swallowed hard, there was no mistaking her for Jess even if he did like to say Jess resembled her, it was Bethany. He wondered grimly as he tore his gaze away and began walking up to the house just how long she had been haunting the place for. Was it part of Set's curse? Was it Daniels' curse alone? Was it simply a trick brought on from being on the other side? Henderson didn't know and he wasn't sure he wanted to.

The cowboy rapped the door once and gave the nervous eyed Becky a reassuring grin. She gave him a faint smile before bidding him to enter. "Mr. Daniels is in the living room," she explained as she gestured in the direction of the front room, "with Miss...Jessica," she finished awkwardly.

Henderson's smile turned mocking at that, no surprise that the help didn't know Jess' surname. She hadn't wanted any of Henderson's party to know it when they had met her. Thornwood of the infamous, cursed Thornwoods, at least the Carnahan siblings and the late Dr. Chamberlain would have everyone believe that the Thornwoods and their curse were infamous. He headed into the living room with ease, his spurs jingling lightly on the wooden floorboards as he walked. He found Daniels deathly pale and sitting on the edge of his seat clutching tightly at an empty whiskey glass as he scowled and his indigo gaze flickered from the bottle to Henderson. Jess was seated in the middle of the floor with her back to the doorway muttering something under her breath.

"I don't know how she got it," Daniels grumbled as he met Henderson's gaze, "but I can't get it back."

"Got what?" Henderson queried as he halted. He froze up when Jess turned sharply to face him. Her face was concealed with a black and gold jackal death mask. It had a small muzzle and only concealed the top half of the front of her face. It also had a gold ankh painted in the middle of its brow and the eyes, innards of the pointed ears and tip of the nose were all gilded. "Oh shit," the blonde muttered with a shake of his head. "Where did that come from?"

"Egypt," Daniels answered sardonically.

"No shit Daniels," Henderson snapped as he frowned over at his friend. Even though Daniels was pale rather than flushed Henderson knew his friend was deep in the whiskey, it was in his tired, slightly blurred gaze and the careless apathy that had replaced fear.

"We were in town, just trying to have a normal damn day but that was asking too much," Daniels grumbled. "She started shrieking at nothing in a cafe; screaming like that damn mummy was there and then she starts talking in riddles about Burns and black sands and going back to Egypt." He let out a heavy sigh. "So I persuade her to wait until you come round, see if you share her desires, I thought she was going up to rest..." He shook his head angrily. "Apparently she was rooting around my treasure, not that I'd care, it's as much as hers as mine, I've told her that before but of all the damn things to take!" He pointed at the death mask. "Why that? Shit she terrorised the cook with it, I've gotta get a new cook now God damn it!"

Henderson crouched before Jess, meeting her gaze through the mask. "You trying to live up to your nickname Jackal?" he queried merrily as he gave a bitter smile.

"It's not the right mask," she muttered, "it doesn't work."

"Work how?" Henderson pried.

"I don't know," she admitted with a shake of her head. "I keep seeing it though; when the dead walk again they are restless. We're walking again Henry and I'm so tired but I can't rest, it's not allowed. Something wants us to go back to Egypt, don't you feel it?"

He tugged off his hat and nodded wearily as he ran a hand through his messy blonde locks. "You know I do."

"It might be small compared to the States but Egypt is still a big fucking country," Daniels chimed up inelegantly, "you two even gonna know where to start if we go?"

Jess whipped her head round to look at the Texan in surprise. "We?"

"Yes we," he retorted bitingly. "I ain't losing you two to that place again."

"Maybe you'll lose yourself," Henderson pointed out darkly.

"Shit don't start that Henry," Daniels muttered as he finally leaned forward to grasp the whiskey bottle on the table before him. "It ain't like you."

"I know," the blonde agreed calmly. "I don't know where to begin if we go," he admitted, "I see glimpses of a black desert and a red one, Anubis seems to be heavily involved too, it's not a place we've been before, I don't think."

"No one's been for a long time," Jess remarked quietly. "I don't know if I have the strength for Anubis and Set but I have to try."

"You know I'm really reluctant to say it and hell maybe I'm only saying it because I'm drunk," Daniels grumbled, "but we're going to need help."

"What kind of help?" Henderson queried as he put his hat back on.

"The kind of help that knows their way around Egypt and might be able to make sense of your riddles and visions," Daniels murmured.

"And who might that be?" Henderson quipped even as he gave a knowing smile.

"The Carnahans or O'Connells now I suppose it is," Daniels admitted. "God only knows I'd rather never them again but who else do we know who not only knows about this shit but believes in it too? And can survive it?"

"And where are they now, merry old England?" Henderson asked sardonically.

Jess finally pushed the jackal mask up and both Americans were disturbed enough by her haunted look to wish she'd kept it on. "Home," she murmured darkly, "where they all died."

Henderson and Daniels exchanged an uncomfortable look and Henderson finally stood up. "Hurry the hell up and pour me a drink Daniels," the blonde muttered, "it's going to be a long night."

Daniels finally stood up and obliged Henderson by procuring him a glass and pouring the last of the whiskey into it.

The men drank heavily into the night working their way through Daniels' prohibited drinks stash. Jess refused any drink but she did eventually surrender the jackal mask to Daniels. When Daniels broke the artefact across his knee angrily she was quick to fling herself at him and scream bloody murder loud enough to draw half the staff to the door. Daniels dismissed them moodily, muttering that Jess had cut herself before he then attempted to quieten Jess.

As the night wore on they came to an agreement to travel to England on the next available ship. Once in England they would seek out Rick O'Connell and the Carnahan siblings and see what guidance they could give, if any. After that they would head on to Egypt.

Jess eventually nodded off on the floor and Daniels rose clumsily in a bid to carry her to bed.

"Not Bethany's room," Henderson protested quietly.

"Why not?" Daniels queried as he swallowed down a hiccup and almost fell as he leaned down to lift the young woman. "It's not her room anymore."

"Just...let her sleep in your room Daniels," Henderson retorted awkwardly.

Daniels gave his friend an odd look as he finally made it upright with a grunt. Jess was sideways in his arms in a distorted position as her legs hung limp over his left arm. "That wouldn't be right," he muttered.

"Be a gentleman and sleep on the couch or the floor," the blonde retorted.

"Why the hell should I?" Daniels muttered as he started walking.

Henderson hastened after him, darting forward a couple of times to steady the Texan and his burden. "Please David," he compelled, "just do as I ask."

Daniels sighed and shook his head as he started ascending the stairs loudly and clumsily. He paused several times as he seemed to move sideways rather than forward and banged his shoulder off the banister. With Henderson's help once more he finally made it upstairs, veering in the direction of Bethany's old room despite the blonde's request.

They reached the room and found the door open. Daniels peered in, sighed and said grimly, "I see." Bethany was standing in the middle of the room, silent and still like a statue. She was wearing the clothes she had died in and her pallid body, blue in the moonlight, was covered in the deep cuts and bruises that had killed her.

Henderson did not see her this time but he thought that he could feel her- a cold, unsettled presence in the room. "Is...is Bethany there?" he queried tentatively.

"Yeah, you don't see her?"

Henderson shook his head. "I saw her when I was outside, didn't know if it was a trick or apparition or what."

"It's Set's curse," Daniels explained as he turned away from the room and proceeded down the corridor to his abode. "Makes you see your dead loved ones, I saw all of you in the end. I had to kill you all back in Hamunaptra," he confessed.

"Shit David I'm sorry," Henderson retorted as he tried and failed to conceal his look of horror.

"Me too," the dark haired male muttered as they entered his room. He placed Jess down into his bed once Henderson had tugged back the blankets. He then fixed the blankets back in place and looked back at the blonde tiredly. "I think I'll stay here, I don't think she'll stay settled if I don't."

Henderson nodded agreeably. "That's alright, I'll take my leave."

"Stay downstairs," Daniels compelled him. "I think we'd both feel better if you did."

Henderson nodded. "Alright." He turned and departed from the room.


End file.
